Country's real names

[Redglyph]

We share names of provinces with Belgium: Brabant and Limburg, but like I said, Belgium had its own ideas about becoming a country, so they were split up in a Dutch and Belgian part, back in the old days. In those, and some other, parts of Belgium they still speak Dutch.

And ironically, Belgium is quite split as I mentioned earlier (and has a ridiculous number of ministers). Some extremist parties would like to see the split official so that the Dutch part joins The Netherlands, the French part France, and the German part Germany. Or at least so that they're not in the same country anymore.

And just for the record, our national motto is: Unity makes strength. :lol:

 

[vanedor]

I live in a french part of Canada, la Province du Québec, or simply "Le Québec". I live in Quebec City, the province capital so it's a bit confusing since it's the same name as the province.

We usually say

Je vis au Québec (Meaning I live in the Province of Quebec)

or

Je vis à Québec (I live in the city of Quebec)

We had two referendums to became an independent country. Both failed, last one was in 1995 with a score of 50.6%. The idea has been mostly put aside, for now.

 

[henriquejr]

I live in a french part of Canada, la Province du Québec, or simply "Le Québec". I live in Quebec City, the province capital so it's a bit confusing since it's the same name as the province.

We usually say

Je vis au Québec (Meaning I live in the Province of Quebec)

or

Je vis Ã* Québec (I live in the city of Quebec)

We had two referendums to became an independent country. Both failed, last one was in 1995 with a score of 50.6%. The idea has been mostly put aside, for now.

So you're a Québécois?

 

[vanedor]

So you're a Québécois?

Yes. Good spelling

 

[Zloth]

crpgnut--State of Illinois in the metro east area of St. Louis, MO, USA. I thought I'd break the USA into states so we get more hits in the thread.

Waaaaait a minute, y'ain't done yet! Is that "Illinoy"? MO... would that stand for Missouree or Missourah? (Ending the state's name with an i sound isn't an option.)

I'm just in a western suburb of Kansas City, in Kansas.

 

[Pladio]

An almost perfect pronounce in English would be:

Flu, like the disease (see below) + me (the pronoun) + nense, which has the same sound as 'sense', you only need to exchange the 's' by a 'n' and there you have it

My favored soccer is also widely known here as Flu (the first syllable), but this has no connection to the Influenza disease, since here in Brasil this disease is called 'gripe', which by its turn doesn't have the same meaning as the verb 'to gripe' in English, it is only a false cognate (this time not even the pronunciation is the same)

Sorry if I sounded wordy

In French gripe is also the flu. Pronounced a bit like greep if written in English but a short e.

 

[Pladio]

Although I've been in the US for over 20 years ( St. Louis - MO side @crpgnut; ), Nottingham, UK will always be my home. Formerly Snotingaham. I'm glad the s was dropped - don't fancy coming from the land of Snot Didn't know this though: from Wikipedia

l did my MEng in Nottingham

Loved it as a student, but can't see myself ever living there.

 

[henriquejr]

In French gripe is also the flu. Pronounced a bit like greep if written in English but a short e.

Yes, exactly. Here too the pronunciation is like 'greep'.

 

[pibbuR]

Jeg bor i Norge.

"Norge" derives from - well, there are of course at least two opinions. Most peoplle think that it comes from old norse "nordvegr" which means "the land in the north". Others claim it comes from "norvegr" (dialect) supposed to mean the "land between narrow fjords". I subscribe to the first one.

Officially the name of the country is (in my form of Norwegian) "Kongeriket Norge" - the kingdom of Norway.

However we have several more or lesss official variants/languages here with different variants of the name:

1. Norwegian bokmål ("book language", used by around 90% of the population): "Norge"
2. New Norwegian (used by around 10% ): "Noreg"
3. North Sami: "Norga"
4. South Sami: "Nöörje"
5. Lule Sami: "Vuodna".

In addition there are a lot of dialects when it comes to spoken Norwegian which may include even more names.

pibbuR who is "pibbuR" in all languages.

PS. There are of course also typos which allows for even more names. Some of them are "Noge", "Nooorrge" and "F*ing country of self-important people in northern Europe". DS.

 

[lackblogger]

There's quite a good video on Youtube where a guy goes into detail about what all the different country names mean and why they are called what they are. Can't remember the title, but it should be findable.

 

[Eye]

Nederland. Born in Amsterdam and lived for a large part of my life in various places below sea level.

Map of the Netherlands without dikes:

Map of flood prone areas.

Now I am high and dry: 16 meters above sea level not far from the Belgian border.

The country as it is today:

 

[Pladio]

There's quite a good video on Youtube where a guy goes into detail about what all the different country names mean and why they are called what they are. Can't remember the title, but it should be findable.

This one ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7PwGdbGtFU&t=704s&ab_channel=GeneralKnowledge

 

[dteowner]

Waaaaait a minute, y'ain't done yet! Is that "Illinoy"? MO… would that stand for Missouree or Missourah? (Ending the state's name with an i sound isn't an option.)

I'm just in a western suburb of Kansas City, in Kansas.

As a new resident of the state, I hear that it makes the locals very happy if you call it ill-i-noise.

Semi-interesting story of the town where I grew up... The settlement was founded in the middle of a swamp. They managed to survive a round of malaria via quinine imported from Lima (lee-mah), Peru. So when it came time to name the town, they decided to pull the name out of a hat. Yes, quite literally. Well, a travelling doctor thought it would be nice to honor the source of quinine that made the town possible so he put Lima in the hat. When it was drawn, the yokel announced it as lie-mah. And they've been stuck with bean jokes ever since.

 

[basharran]

Yes, exactly. Here too the pronunciation is like 'greep'.

In Dutch it's "griep", which is also pronounced the same way.

 

[Pladio]

In Dutch it's "griep", which is also pronounced the same way.

But the g is pronounced very differently.

Closer to how Scots say ch in Loch.

So that's Chreep for any Scottish people here.

 

[Eye]

But the g is pronounced very differently.

Closer to how Scots say ch in Loch.

So that's Chreep for any Scottish people here.

Yes, if you say 'gripe' in the Netherlands, people will look at you and say: "Whut? You yourself are a creep!"

 

[Eye]

The map below shows the names of capitals of European countries in the local language.

See:
https://jakubmarian.com/pronunciation-of-european-capitals/

 

[basharran]

Yes, if you say 'gripe' in the Netherlands, people will look at you and say: "Whut? You yourself are a creep!"

Very large difference between north and south in the Netherlands (roughly divided at the river Rhine). The 'g' will be pronounced 'softer' the further south you go.

 

[Eye]

The south is . . . Well, don't get me started. I mean, everyone knows it is patat and not frites.

 

[Myrthos]

No it's not. It's obviously friet.